eBay to make money

everywhere I go I hear selling books is the bees knees.

I fucking know it is I SEE IT IS. I just dont want to do it.

Why? I'm fucking retarded and i'm asking to get my shit destroyed for selling electronics.

>>1762678
Electronics is overcrowded by NEETs both buying and selling, after the cheapest price. You'd be better off selling obscure components or something.

Books would also do well as a local market type setup (as would used golf balls)

Any specific genre of book or do yu just sell any random books in general? Because I have a huge amount of normal books, which i could probably use

>>1762732
Haven't done a huge amount but the "classics" are a good bet. Lots of people looking to read them. My Haruki Murakami books sold well. Just watch for book series that are so popular that brand new sets are available cheap

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Ebay is a great place to make money for certain things. Im currently sitting on about 25k in comics. Anytime i want a little extra cash i just pop a few handfulls of books up. Stuff sells everytime.

My buddy just picked up roughly 20k in action figures for a great price. Easy money right...

The problem is, is that its actually a lot of boring work. Taking pictures, making detailed descriptions, packing, shipping, sourcing more merch, and dealing with stupid people all keep my motivation to sell in the basement. If its your only source of income then yeah do what you gotta do but otherwise a normal wageslave job is much better. Id rather sell it all for a small loss in profit instead of spending all my free time on ebay stuff.

Is there a way to make an anonymous ebay account with an anonymous paypal so I can avoid paying taxes if I wanted to try and live using only ebay as a source of income?

>>1762804
I agree with this, you need a system to simplify the process. Postage and eBay's 10% fee will crush your profits. I think second hand items like video games and books are a good bet as you can pick them up cheap at garage sales and flip on eBay.

Other small, higher value items like watches or specialty components can be a good bet if you are an expert in your niche. There is a guy called plazajapan who sells Japanese model trains on eBay for a great price - he probably profits 50c per item but has maybe 1000 SKUs and he automates the listing and sale of each item, if he sells 1000 items per day he makes 500 bucks.

It's interesting how I explore the business model, if you can buy cheap books in bulk for less than $1 you can make money on eBay.

Not quite, buddy.

>Sell book
>eBay takes 10%
>PayPal takes 3%
>Turns out the cheapest shipping rate from AU to the UK is more than the total received
>I lose $15 on the sale

>>1762857
Yeah I only ship local and still manage to occasionally lose money.

>>1762816
Yep. With comics, i know what im looking for and always try to buy in bulk. Im talking .20 cents or less per book. I have never taken a loss on comics. Yeah sure i have a basement full of them not doing shit but thats just because im lazy/working a full time job.

There is money to be made on ebay, you just have to want it. Im doing so good on my books that i should let a legit auction house sell the stuff at a 22% cut and not have to do any work.

My shitty tips:

- Like the other anon said, either have a niche you're very knowledgeable about or sell high-volume low cost shit

- In the UK at least, the magic weight/dimensions are Large Letter size under 100g. That will encompass everything from small components, coins, stamps etc to games, DVDs and paperback books. Anything bulkier and you're in a whole different ball game in terms of postage. I like to save myself the headache and stick to items I can put in a mailbox.

- Foreigners are thieves. Not all foreigners, but if you offer overseas shipping you WILL suffer the occasional fraud because it's so easy to get away with. Factor this in to your strategy and pricing.

- I personally don't make money on postage. I charge pretty much exactly what it costs me. Customers are stupid but not so stupid that they won't realise your 0.99c item is being subsidized by the $19.50 postage you're asking. I'd sooner have glowing feedback and repeat custom than Jew my punters.

- Have a template, re-use the fuck out of it. Time is money.

- Most sales happen over the weekend. If you use auction listings, start your auctions on a Thursday evening on a 10 day duration.

- Selling small or cheap items? Cut the crap, forget about optimistic bidding wars, set it as a 30-day buy it now and set the price to what YOU want. If it's hot somebody will pay. People want small cheap items NOW and will pay for the convenience.

- Actually you can set the price slightly higher than you will settle for and offer Best Price Offer. Make the cunts think they're getting a bargain.

- The items condition isnt important? Use a damn stock image. 99% of people will neither notice not care. Just be transparent about it and be helpful if a customer asks for pics/description.

- Utilise any free listing deals.

- Want to list now but only have free scheduled listings left? Set it to start in 5 minutes.

- Always reciprocate positive feedback but AFTER the buyer initiates

>>1762804
>My buddy just picked up roughly 20k in action figures for a great price. Easy money right...
Good luck. Unless they're half off, nobody will touch them.

>>1762933
For certain items you NEED a real picture to get the target demographic of people interested in buying. For example things that devalue when scratched.

>>1762933
>>1762857
>>1762605

Why the fuck dont people use Gumtree?

>>1762945
Hes actually doing pretty good. 2.5k initial investment for roughly 20k worth of product. He sells at about 10 percent under fmv and hes selling like a madman. He also has the luxury of having the winter months off of his fulltime job so he can devote time to his side projects.

>>1763082
Where did he get them? Finding in-demand used goods at an excellent price is a great way to make money on ebay

>>1763883
>>1763082
Yeah the 90% margin helps. You can't really make it with new stuff that has a margin of 20% if you're lucky. Fees eat almost all of it and that's IF you're not dealing with poorfags.